Santa Monica's late Hump restaurant and two of its sushi chefs were accused by a federal grand jury of selling endangered Sei whale meat, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles announced this afternoon.

The parent company, Yamamoto, and Ueda were hit with these counts, according to the U.S. Attorney's statement:

The Hump is charged with smuggling and Yamamoto is charged with two counts of smuggling.

The Hump is also charged with a misdemeanor count of the sale of a marine mammal product for an unauthorized purpose, and Yamamoto is charged with two misdemeanor counts of sale of a marine mammal product for an unauthorized purpose.

Yamamoto is additionally charged with obstructing an official proceeding. Contained in that charges is an allegation that Yamamoto instructed other sushi chefs at The Hump to lie about the source of the whale meat.

Ueda is additionally charged with making a false statement to federal investigators about the source of the whale meat.

Dennis Romero has worked on staff at several magazines and newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times, where he participated in Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the L.A. riots. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone online, the Guardian, and, as a
young stringer, the New York Times.